April 6, 2020: Day 65 – II Kings 7

I hope you are following along with this story.  I am finding it much easier to follow along in the life of Elisha and what happens to him and with him as he ministers to the north.  The Arameans are still amassing against Israel on the city gates of Samaria, which is the capital.  The people are starving, the king, in the last chapter, sent people to kill Elisha because he was to blame for this failure of provision.

The chief guard was told by Elisha that tomorrow, the next day, food would be sold at the city gates at a rate which was normal.  Basically, Elisha said that by tomorrow things will go back to normal.  The guard said there is no way that is going to happen.  Elisha responded by saying: it will happen, oh it will happen, but you will not be able to enjoy it.  

Outside of the city gates there are four lepers who find themselves in a difficult situation.  If they choose to go inside the city they will die from starvation.  If they go to the camp of the Arameans they could potentially die at the hands of the Arameans, but at least they had a chance.  So they go to the camp and notice that they had deserted it because God had sent a squadron of angels which scared away the Arameans.  So they go back and tell  the people of Samaria, the capital of Israel, that they were free to roam about the cabin. 

The words of Elisha are fulfilled as they plunder the camp.  But when they open the gates of Samaria the people get a bit excited and crush the commander who opened the gate, the same one who came to kill Elisha earlier and who heard the prophecy that next day things would go back to normal.  So the famine passes and the siege is over simply because the Arameans have run away from the presence of the Lord.  

The question I am asking is how is the king going to treat Elisha after this situation?  I’m guessing that we do not find out how the king responds.